A GEEK DADDY: Sharing a dad's adventures in parenting plus enjoying the geeky side of life

Monday, March 12, 2018

A New Addition To The Family

It was an exciting weekend as we added a new addition to the family. We bought a 2-week old Boxer puppy. It will still be awhile until we bring her home though. The puppy will be staying with her mom until she is 8 weeks old before coming to live with us as part of our family.

There are a few reasons we chose a Boxer for our family's first dog. First they have a reputation for being very loyal and loving as well as great with kids. They're also short-haired dogs that don't require a lot of grooming making them ideal as a house pet. The dogs are also very playful, patient and protective in nature.

While not overly aggressive as a breed, Boxers are very protective of their homes and the families they live with making them great watch dogs. Male boxers can grow on average to be 65 to 85 pounds so we picked out a girl who should probably end up being somewhere between 40 and 50 pounds. Small enough to be manageable by my kids but yet big enough to be intimidating to a home intruder.

Here are some facts about Boxers from the American Kennel Club:

Boxers are descendants of the Bullenbeisser, massive big-game hunters bred by German nobles during medieval times to run down and catch bear, bison and boars on vast estates.

Changes in the times and needs of these dogs led to the Bullenbeisser being bred down to what is now known as the modern-day Boxer in the 1800s.

Since a Boxer named Bang Away won the Westminster Dog Show in the 1950's, Boxers have continually reigned as one of America's top ten dog breeds.

They are highly intelligent and excellent problem solvers.

Boxers excel in a wide range of canine sports including obedience, agility, and herding. They also perform brilliantly as service, assistance and therapy dogs.

A boxer tends to be a very clean dog and its short, shiny coat needs very little grooming

Our new Boxer puppy is supposed to be for the kids but my wife has warned them there is a good chance it will become daddy's dog. That probably is a good possibility!